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FaIlure

The lights are up, the decorations are on display and holiday consumerism is at its best. That’s right. It’s nearly …that time again: time for more New Year’s resolutions, which — if you’re like 92% of folks — will be broken in fairly short order.

The statistics are bleak. A mere 8% of people actually stick to their New Year’s resolutions, with many abandoning those resolutions inside of a week!

We’re surrounded by “New Year, New You” rhetoric. Yet the fact remains: little, if anything, will change when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2014. It’s just plain unrealistic to believe that a well-established habit or tendency that you’ve spent all year engraining will be miraculously eliminated or overcome once the calendar reads “2015.”

In fact, many go into the new year with a resolution that lacks a definitive plan of attack, with measurable, “SMART” goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.)

It’s a set up for failure and it’s the type of failure that can harm your self-esteem and self-worth, leaving you languish amidst that which you sought to stamp out. So instead of losing weight, you find yourself cuddled up on the couch, downing an entire pint of ice cream (the good stuff, not the crappy fat free variety), followed by a vodka chaser to drown your miseries.

Quite simply, New Year’s resolutions are a load of crap.

New Year’s resolutions are an archaic tradition, dating back to the time of ancient Babylon when the people would make promises to the gods for the upcoming year.

But these resolutions were very different in nature. They weren’t seeking to stamp out deeply engrained behaviors and bad habits overnight, nor were they striving to achieve a complete psychological overhaul. The Babylonians’ resolutions were much easier to achieve, perhaps vowing to return a loaf of bread to the neighbor to make up for the loaf that they had previously borrowed.

So with this in mind, perhaps it would be more appropriate to make a New Year’s resolution to return your neighbor’s weed whacker.

What’s more, the Babylonians believed that they would be struck down by their gods if they failed to follow through, making the consequences very compelling.

Without the threat of divine bombardment, many lack the motivation and incentive required to effect real, lasting change.

The bottom line is this: New Year’s resolutions are all about hype. If you really want to change or improve, don’t wait for the new year to arrive before taking action. Start your transformation today! And if you make a mistake, you’ll know you’re human. Get up off the ground, dust off those knees and keep going.

Procrastination and postponement could be construed as evidence that you’re not ready to change; perhaps you don’t really want it. Perhaps you’re meant to travel down a different path.

There’s no guarantee of a tomorrow, so live as though today was your last day. Become the person you want to be beginning this very moment. Start the transformation process now. Set yourself up to succeed with a goal that’s achievable, measurable and realistic.

Once you achieve that goal, establish a new objective and continue growing and improving. Life is a journey, not a destination. So hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

These are just some of the topics we’ll be exploring on the latest episode of Sunday Night With “Scott Binsack”. It’s a must-see episode; one that will set you up to succeed beginning right now.